A Change In The Line Up
by Evangeline's Angel
Summary: A new face joins the Jeffersonian staff. She's not really a Squintern, but then where does she fit in? What new dynamic will she bring to the team, and how will the other's react to her? Read and Review.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: First Bones Fanfiction, though I have written quite a few for other fandoms, such as Harry Potter, Twilight and Criminal Minds. This is the beginning of a series that is going to start with Bones, become a crossover with CM and then come to a rest in Criminal Minds. The idea came to me in a dream, a girl who joins one team, brings both together, and then moves on to the other team. Again, this is just the beginning. The very beginning, well, as close to the beginning as I can get away with. Anyway, the main character is an OC, and while you know nothing of her now, you will learn along with the rest of the bunch. The first chapter is 1,078 words long and begins in episode 23 of season 6, "**_**The Change in the Game".**_

**To anyone who is a reader of mine already, I know I said I was going to write something else, but when an idea strikes, you write. I'll get that done as soon as I can.**

**And now, without any more adieux, I give you,**

**A Change in the Line Up**

**Chapter One**

Willow Charlotte Payne holds two doctorates, one in forensic anthropology, and another in archeology. Standing in front of the Jeffersonian is just as awe-inspiring and intimidating as it is to anyone else who is going in to work under Doctor Temperance Brennan as it is to Willow. Despite her already having her doctorate in anthropology, she needed more real world experience before she could get a job in her field beyond being another anthropologist's assistant.

Now she could have chosen to go to any number of places and worked with bones from any number of races, places, or times, she chose to work under Dr. Brennan because she is the best, and Willow wanted to learn from the best. Well, that and at nineteen, there aren't that many places that are willing to take her on. Not that Dr. Brennan knew she was coming, just that she had a new assistant today. She also knew that it would be decidedly difficult for her to gain Dr. Brennan's acceptance, let alone her approval given that she was taking the spot, however short term it may be, of an intern whom Brennan had watched die.

Even the most reasonable person would be affected by that.

Shaking herself, Willow adjusted her simple red dress, and the thin tan leather belt around her waist before walking as confidently as she could up to the doors of the Medico-Legal Lab of the Jeffersonian Institute. As the doors to the building open, Willow spots Dr. Saroyan, the head of the Forensics Department, and her new boss, standing by a set of glass sliding doors through which Willow could see the Forensics Platform and a multitude of people wandering through the large room. With a deep breath, and a slightly shaky smile Willow held out her hand.

"Doctor Payne, yes?" Camille Saroyan asked as she shook Willow's hand.

"Just Willow, or Miss Payne, I'll get enough looks for my age without the title thrown in there." Willow grimaced slightly. "If you don't mind, of course."

Cam smiled wryly, "I understand, Miss Payne. If you will follow me, I'll show you around, and introduce you to who you will be working with most often. Dr. Brennan is out at a crime scene retrieving a set of remains." Cam turned and led the way into the spacious room, the slightly acrid smell of disinfectant hung in the air, not that it bothered Willow any, dorm rooms smelt a lot worse.

The pair walked a straight line to the Forensics Platform and Cam used her passkey to lead Willow onto it. She explained about the basics as she led the way straight across the room. On the other side of the platform was an office that contained more plant-life then Willow had ever seen in a lab, along with a curly haired man whom seemed to be very much wrapped up in whatever it was that he was looking at under his microscope. That is, until Dr. Saroyan cleared her throat and his head jerked up instinctively.

"Is Brennan back with the body? Is there trace?" The man said before taking notice of Willow. "Who's this?"

"Hodgins, this is Willow Payne, D-uh Miss Payne, this is Doctor Jack Hodgins. She's going to be working her for a few months." Cam said, gesturing between the two.

Hodgins stood and pulled off one latex glove and held out his newly freed hand. "Nice to meet you, Miss Payne, I take it you are a new Squintern?"

Willow shook the man's hand lightly while replying, "I don't know exactly what a Squintern is, but I don't think I'd be classified as an intern."

"And why is that?" Hodgins asked leaning across the desk.

"I think I'll leave that for you to find out." Willow ducked her head and looked to Cam.

"Alright," Cam said with a clap, "I think I should keep this going, Dr. Brennan will be back soon, and we still have more to go." Cam spun on her heel and led the way back out of the room and down the hall. Willow jumped slightly to follow, her low heels clacking heavily on the concrete floor. Cam pointed out the janitors closet, her office and the Autopsy room along the way to a large office which with a quick knock, she led Willow into. "Hi, Angela, how are you?"

"I'm alright, just booting up the Angelator. And you-who is this?" Angela asked as she turned from her large screen with a raised eyebrow and slightly indulgent smile. "Is it bring-your-kid-to-work day?"

Cam snorted slightly and began to gesture to Willow, who took a step forward and held out her own hand. "Willow Payne, I'm nineteen, and I'm not someone's kid, at least, not anyone around here."

"A Squintern then." Angela explained to herself as she shook Willow's hand and nodded.

"Not quite, but close enough." Willow corrected with a shrug.

"If you aren't a Squintern, then what are you?" Angela asked.

Willow tilted her head to the side slightly watching Angela closely for a moment before replying. "I want to have my impression first, and my explanation second. Otherwise, there are too many assumptions."

Angela seemed to mentally chew on that for a second before nodding. "I like her, how long are we keeping her?" She asked Cam who just shook her head.

"A few months at least, maybe a year." Cam answered. "Now, come Miss Payne, we do have a few more stops before we can get to work."

Cam then led Willow through the rest of the building, covering the cafeteria, the lounge on the upper catwalk, Dr. Brennan's office and her own, along with Bone Storage; aptly called 'Limbo' by many, and finally brought the tour to an end back where it started, in front of the Forensics Platform. A security guard stood by one corner holding a blue and a grey lab coat, one in each hand, and a passkey dangling from his right hand.

Cam, facing the guard, clipped the passkey to her dress beside her own and took hold of each lab coat. Turning to face Willow she held up the grey coat. "This is what our interns normally wear. Take this one and you will blend; no one will question you." Cam lowered the grey coat and held up the blue one. "Take this one, and everyone will question you. But it will be obvious that you aren't just and intern."


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: Chapter two up. I guess I should inform you that as I finish a chapter, I'm posting it. So that could mean that you get more than one some days, and none others. Anyway, this chapter is 1,060 words long. You will recognize some of it as some came directly out of The Change in the Game. Obviously it won't have all or even most of the episode word for word like this as Willow would not have reason to be in the field at this point. Either way, read and review, I love feedback and I can't get any better if people don't help me.**

**A Change in the Line Up**

**Chapter Two**

"The choice is yours, Miss Payne." Cam finished and held both lab coats out to the younger woman.

Willow smiled, and took the blue coat. "I'd get asked questions anyway, there's an intern up there on the platform already looking like he wants to spout out a bunch." Willow pulled on the coat as Cam nodded to herself.

"True, that is Wendell Bray, you will likely be working close with him for the next few days." Cam pulled the passkey off her dress and held it out to Willow. "And this makes it official, you can now come and go as you please on the Forensics Platform, and around the museum. Welcome, Miss Payne."

As Willow took her new passkey from Cam, the elder woman nodded and turned to go back to her office, leaving Willow to her own devices. A glance down at her passkey told her not to let anyone see it if she wanted to keep her title under wraps for now. Turning to the platform, she swiped her card for the first time before tucking it securely into her pocket.

On the platform, Wendell was half watching Willow, and half puttering around waiting on Dr. Brennan to arrive with the remains. When Willow got to the top of the stairs, she looked at Wendell and held out her hand. "Hello there, my name is Willow Payne, and you are?"

With a crooked grin Wendell took Willow's hand and gave it a light shake. "Wendell Bray at your service."

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Bray." Willow responded with a smile. "I don't suppose there is anywhere around here I could store my purse, is there? I think that is the one thing Dr. Saroyan left out of her tour."

"Oh, yeah sure!" He said nodding and began leading the way off the platform. "Over here there is a small locker room used by the interns and most of the staff that doesn't have an office."

The pair made their way to the small locker room, to find that each locker was labeled with a name of a staff member or intern, and there was one with a very new looking label that read _Dr. Willow Payne, PhD._ Willow slammed her hand down on the label and made to tear it off, but the damage was done, Wendell was already staring at her with his mouth moving wordlessly.

"D-_doctor_ Willow Payne?" He asked still looking like he couldn't quite make sense of the information his eyes were giving him.

Willow raised her eyes to the celling and took a very deep breath before nodding. "Yeah, if you wouldn't mind keeping that to yourself for a while, Dr. Saroyan and you are the only two who know. I'd like to keep it that way for a while." Willow reached into her purse and withdrew a small pocket knife. After snapping it open, she very carefully cut through paper of the label and scratching off the 'Dr.' and 'PhD' from the metal door.

"You can't possibly be old enough to have a doctorate. There's no way." Wendell shook his head in disbelief. "It has to be a mistake."

"It wasn't, I assure you. I started university when I was ten. I work fast; I got my doctorates when I was sixteen." Willow said as she shoved her purse almost viciously into her locker. "And again, I'd appreciate it staying between us."

"Yeah, sure, no problem." Wendell nodded vaguely before freezing, his mind having finally processed the words she spoke. "Wait, doctorat_es_? As in more than one?"

"Yes, two. And I'm working on a third." Willow closed her locker door and turned to the door. "Shall we?"

Soon enough the pair found themselves on the Forensics Platform once again, this time slowly and carefully pulling human remains out of a pin setter from a bowling alley, at least, Wendell was. Willow had already begun work on the bones that had made it through the machine and set on the alley itself. She catalogued each nick, fracture and oddity she found on the few bones she had.

"Bruising on the ulna and the pisiform, slight fracture on the radial tuberosity, both anti-mortem. Wounds are consistent with defensive wounds, definitely a struggle." Willow mused to herself as she handled what was left of the victims arm. "Victims frontal bone, nasal bone, and much of the orbital socket are fractured. Consistent with blunt force trauma to the face." As she finished her musing she stood straight and turned to face Wendell who was then talking to Hodgins.

"Watch this, I'm about to Brennanize you." Wendell said rubbing his hands together.

"Brennanize?" Hodgins asked flatly.

"Transverse fracture of the metacarpal of the right thumb, chondromalacia patella of the left knee, in the notch. In the notch of the ulna-" Wendell started speaking quickly.

"The notch in the notch?" Hodgins asked sardonically.

"That's correct." Wendell answered before continuing. "With exocytosis of the medial surface."

"Okay, so what is that, some kind of repetitive stress stuff?" Hodgins questions.

Wendell answers with a quick, "yep, like this." and begins demonstrating a movement. He brings is right hand up so it is level with his head before swinging it down to his hip, while bending his knee and then bringing it back up. As he repeats the motion, Hodgins joins in.

Willow stands watching as they talk their way through the motion.

Wendell theories it to be a ritualized offering to the sun; while Hodgins throws in his own theories that it is to a figure on a high thrown, "like a satanic or illuminati slave."

"Boys." Angela says as she swipes her passkey and mounts the platform. "You're bowling."

Hodgins panics briefly that it is time for his pregnant wife to give birth, but is quickly subdued while Wendell continues his, albeit altered movement.

"Bowling," Hodgins nods. "That would correspond with the excess amounts of polyester in his garment."

"And the fact that he was found in a bowling alley." Willow added.

"And that he was wearing a bowling shirt with the name Jeff on it." Angela finished with showing the trio a rundown of the process she used to reveal the name Jeff out of the tatters of the shirt. "And the team name," She did a second scan of a second piece of shirt. "The Thunderballs."


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: Hey all, hope you are liking this story as much as I am. I haven't had this much luck with writing in almost a year, so I hope it's as good as I think it is. Let me know in a review if you like it. Anyway, this chapter is 966 words long, and the last of this short, short story. But do not fret! There will be more adventures of Willow to come. Likely some of season seven, perhaps about half before I begin the phasing with Criminal Minds.**

**A Change in the Line Up**

**Chapter three**

Doctor Brennan was in the Jeffersonian for a grand total of twelve minutes before she left to do only she knows what. Willow hadn't even met the woman yet. That was fine with her though, at the moment at least, this way she could get some solid work done before having the pressure of her new 'boss' hanging over her shoulder. Willow had been tasked with removing what little flesh was left on the bones via an enzyme bath, and she had done so without much thought; the procedure is fairly routine.

Sometime later Willow, Wendell and Hodgins stood in the bone room, each examining the bones on the table. Trace evidence had been lifted out of the fractures to the nasal bones and an extreme close up was displayed on the screen.

"If I can't come up with cause of death, Dr. Brennan is going to throw me into that machine." Wendell announced.

"You're right." Hodgins said, not looking up from the bones.

"You are supposed to say, 'no, she will understand'." Wendell said, panicky.

"But she won't." Hodgins told him, with only a slight glance.

"You know, I'm new, I'll probably catch more grief then you." Willow said from the foot of the table.

Wendell looked at her and shook his head. "This is only a job for you."

Hodgins looked between the two. "She's a Squintern too, Wendell."

And at the same time that Wendell replied, "No, she isn't." Willow said, "No, I'm not."

"O-kay then." Hodgins said stretching the word. In exasperation, Wendell put his hand down roughly on the table. A slight skittering noise sounded, though only barely. "Did you hear that?"

"Only us breathing." Wendell replied as Willow shook her head.

"No, no, no, something rattled in his skull." Hodgins said.

Wendell leaned down to get a better look as Willow came forwards and stood beside Hodgins and did the same. A quick shake from Wendell revealed something to be loose inside the skull.

"Something dislodged in the enzyme bath." He stated needlessly as he shook the pieces out.

"Is that?" Willow asked leaning to the other side to get a closer look at the fragments. Wendell nodded before explaining to Hodgins that the man did in fact die from a broken nose.

Willow excused herself from the main room and ducked into the locker room to retrieve her purse before heading into the cafeteria for lunch. Grabbing a salad with a bunch of fresh vegetables and a bottle of water. Ducking back to the work area, she tried to get to the locker room but was called by Hodgins to go into Angela's office to help try and figure out the murder weapon.

"Do you mind if I eat in here?" Willow asks the office's owner, Angela. "I've always been on a very strict routine, and it's tough to break it."

"Not at all sweetie, go ahead." Angela said. "I'm eating to. Hot sause?"

"I think I'm good, but thanks for the offer." Willow said with a half-smile.

Soon the quartet were set to work, Angela eating her lunch and operating the Angelator and each of the others making suggestions about what could be the murder weapon.

It was only a few minutes before Angela froze. "Oh, my god." She murmured.

"What Ange? Do you know what the murder weapon is?" Hodgins asked excitedly.

"Oh, my god." Angela repeated a bit more forcefully.

"Ange?" Hodgins asked.

"You've been freaking out all day, and when my water breaks, you don't notice?" Angela asked incredulously.

Willow looked eyes wide at the older woman. "Oh!"

In a huge rush Hodgins and Angela were out of the building and on their way to the hospital. Wendell and Willow looked at each other then out the door. "So, what now?"

"Well, I guess you can finish you lunch, I'm going to put the speck through the Mass-Speck." Wendell answered shrugging.

The pair went their separate ways for the time being and life was at a standstill of sorts. There wasn't much to be done in the lab until they knew what the murder weapon was, and the two people most likely to figure it out were out of the lab.

An hour later found Dr. Saroyan, Wendell and Willow back in Angela's office trying to figure out the Angelator. Not that it worked in any way, and only resulted in Angela evicting them from her office via Skype.

They knew that the murder weapon was made of polyurethane, which narrowed the weapon down to a bowling ball. Which in itself was not helpful, and because they couldn't use the Angelator to find out what size the ball was, or how fast it was going, or anything, Wendell had begun doing it by hand.

On the Forensics Platform there was at least fifteen bowling balls laid out while Wendell held a piece of paper and a pencil while talking himself through the math. "Okay, force times mass, times exceleration. To break a nose you need a very low force with a high mass. Say around thirty g's or… no, no, no."

"This is like watching Michelle do her homework." Cam muttered to Willow.

He soon came to the conclusion that, "any mass higher than 2.26kg wielded at any acceleration would be too much." Wendell began another equation. "Two point two six kilograms is…"

"Five pounds. The ball could not have been more than five pounds." Cam answered.

Although it was later realized that the murder weapon was a motorcycle helmet, not a bowling ball, it was a good time for a finish in the day. Booth and Brennan caught the 'shoe guy', the murderer. And everyone, save Willow of course, went to the hospital in time to welcome Michael Staccato Vincent Hodgins into the world.


End file.
